218: A CEO’s Impact on a Young Leader

What does it take to prepare college and university students to be effective leaders when they graduate? My guest Tom Kolditz knows exactly what’s required…and he’s making it happen as Executive Director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University—the most comprehensive, evidence‐based, university‐wide leader development program in the world. Tom was hand-picked by billionaire John Doerr to create this program. What Tom and his team have achieved in the past 6 years is ground-breaking and highly effective.

Tom is extremely well-qualified for this role. He’s a retired Brigadier General, and for 12 years at West Point he led the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. Then for 4 years he was the founding director of the Leader Development Program at the Yale School of Management. He’s the co-author with my good friend Libby Gill of the book that explains all the components of the Doerr program: Leadership Reckoning: Can Higher Education Develop the Leaders We Need?

You’ll discover:

• The 4 Principles of the Doerr Institute that drive all their program decisions
• The shortfalls in most college/university student leadership development programs
• Why Tom’s focus of leadership development is on colleges/universities only and not high schools
• Why HR executives compete to hire participants of the Doerr Institute
• How Tom has partnered with the Carnegie Foundation to co-create a classification system that every college and university in the U.S. can apply for

Watch the episode:

Connect with Tom

Tom’s Website

Doerr Institute’s Website

Tom’s Book

Leadership Reckoning: Can Higher Education Develop the Leaders We Need?